Chained
by hunablawliet
Summary: L's had it with Near and Mello's constant bickering and is prepared to use any means necessary to get them to work together. MelloxNear.
1. Chain

The two orphans sat across from each other, the blonde sending a deathly glare every few minutes to the other. In his mind, it was Near's fault that they'd been embarrassed in front of the infamous detective they looked up to, and it only increased his anger with the white-haired boy. That and the fact he only returned his look with a blank, uncaring stare. If L hadn't been watching them right now, he would have wiped that look off his face in a second.

"What am I going to do with you both?" L said sharply, looking between the two. L was the one person that could make Mello feel guilty about anything, and right now he avoided his gaze, crossing his arms adamantly. He never got angry like this, only sent them away with a disappointed speech on how he knew they could do better. Today, the determined look in his empty eyes was enough to scare him a little.

"Fighting between the two of you is one thing, but to involve another child is unacceptable." L stated, with the same sharp tone.

"It's not like Matt cared." Mello muttered quietly.

"Matt is in the infirmary with a broken arm."

"If he hadn't got in the way he wouldn't have gotten hurt!" He protested.

"You were about to throw Near off of the balcony." L replied calmly. "This is one incident too much. You must face some kind of punishment. One that might actually benefit your relationship." L pressed his thumb to his lips as he thought. Nothing seemed to work with these two. After long, things would just go back to normal and there would be another incident like this.

There was nothing for it. He'd have to do something he really didn't want to have to do. This would either make things better… or much worse.

"Both of you, hold out your arms." He instructed. After an exchange of confused looks, the two children complied. L disappeared momentarily behind the desk, before re-emerging and within seconds snapping two ends of extended handcuffs around their wrists.

There was a short pause, before an expected outburst.

"What the hell is this, L? Some kind of joke?" Mello snapped, tugging at the metal ring around his wrist. Near only examined it, for once complete surprise in his expression.

"This is not a joke, Mello. This is your punishment." L replied with an amused smile.

"Come on, stop kidding around." Mello shot a glare at Near, not daring to take his anger out on the detective. "Are you saying I have to stay chained to this freak?"

"Yes. Let's make it a week."

"A WEEK?" Mello fumed, getting to his feet. "I'm NOT doing this, L."

"Yes you are. I will only let you both go when you've learned to tolerate each other at least." L could tell he might have lost some of Mello's admiration, but that wasn't his concern right now.

"Excuse me, L, but I really have to protest." Near spoke up, looking over at Mello uneasily. "This won't work out. We won't be able to leave in close quarters for that long. We have different classes, for one."

"I'll sort all that out. Near, you can move into Mello's room. You're both boys so you'll have to get used to being around each other. I'll give Roger a key, but strict instructions to only let you out to get changed. I'm sure you'll be able to handle it."

"L, this is the most stupid idea you've ever had. Both of us will probably end up dead." Mello said through gritted teeth, examining the handcuff snapped tightly around his wrist.

"No need to be so melodramatic. If you won't be able to handle something as small as this, I'll have to reconsider having you both as my contenders for successors." At this, Mello and Near both froze. This was a challenge, a test to see if they could get along as well as a punishment. Neither of them were going to back down from an opportunity to show L they were worthy of being a successor, and neither was going to give in. "You may leave. I have things to discuss with Watari and Roger." L popped a small biscuit into his mouth. "Good luck."

The orphans stood, walking back towards the door. Once the door closed behind them, they examined each other, before looking at the chain. There was an ominous silence.

"I'm not sharing a shower with you, prick." Mello scowled and walked off, pulling Near reluctantly along with him. He could tell it was going to be a long week.


	2. Tantrum

Mello stormed back to his room, seemingly haven disregarded Near's presence altogether. It didn't surprise him in the slightest. Near predicted that most of this time would be spent being dragged around by him to places he wanted to go. It could even affect them so much that the scores were switched around. The fact that they were being ranked this week wasn't a nice thought, in the least.

He was shoved into the room, Mello slamming the door behind them and starting to pace, muttering angrily. Near let out a small cough to indicate he was still there, and Mello's had snapped to the side to glare at him.

"Okay, listen here. Whilst we're forced into doing this, we're going to have to come up with some ground rules. First of all is that you do whatever I say without question."

"Why would I do that?" Near asked, frowning. "I think we should come to a mutual understanding for this to work."

"How about this- if you don't do what I say, I'll die your hair whilst you sleep." This wasn't too far-fetched for him, and he could tell that he was being perfectly serious about this. He'd just have to deal with that when it came to it.

"Fine."

"Second one is that we're not going to shower or go to the toilet in the same room. Ever."

"Not a problem." He muttered.

"This chain will not change anything. After this, we make sure that everything goes back to the way it was- competing for L's place." He said slowly. This interested Near to some end.

"Why would this change anything?" His dark eyes flickered up to meet Mello's icy-blue ones. "Are you suggesting that this might end in friendship?"

"Of course not, idiot." Mello stubbornly stared back. He was always determined to be the one to not look away. "I'm just… ensuring it. To be safe."

"So there is?" Sometimes, he couldn't help but provoke the other a little. Testing the boundaries was always something interesting to do. Unfortunately, he'd passed the boundary. Mello stalked forwards and shoved the boy against the wall by his shoulders, looking at him with pure hatred.

"Listen up, short ass. Try to play any mind games with me this week and I'll wrap this chain around your throat, I swear. I'm not putting up with this bullshit from you. You won't beat me this way."

"Then you'll have to learn to exercise some control." Near replied, unfazed. These threats were regular, but the slightly unhinged calmness to his tone wasn't. "You'll get into some trouble for killing me."

The two glared at each other, unmoving. Neither would back down, probably ever. Just as Mello looked like he was about to snap, the door next to them swung open, causing both of them to stare at it in surprise.

A very awkward-looking Matt stood in the doorway, holding a PSP in one hand and his other arm slung in a bandage. He blinked at the two through his goggles.

"…Did I miss something?" He coughed, eyeing the handcuffs.

Mello shoved Near away, glowering at the gamer. "Why the hell are you in my room?"

"I'm always in your room." He pointed out. Mello only growled, and held up his wrist.

"I'm chained to him for a week. A whole week, all because you had to go and interfere and get your arm broken."

Matt's mouth twitched. He was obviously trying not to laugh. "That's… well…" Failing, he cracked up, closing the door behind him so that he could lean on it.

"Will this be funny when the other is broken?" Mello snapped.

"Definitely." Matt shook his head. "Damn, L is insane to think this might actually work."

"He doesn't. He's just doing this to test us." Near piped up, getting to his feet. Mello's push had landed him on the floor.

Mello looked like he was about to retaliate, but didn't, seeing as he was correct. "…I don't doubt him. But this was an unbelievably shitty idea." He scowled, going to sit in a chair.

"Who knows? It could prove to be interesting." Near shrugged.

"Interesting? More like torture." Mello said under his breath, seeming to have given up on taking his anger out on anyone.

"Aw, come on, torture? There are a lot of benefits to this!" Matt flopped down next to Mello, nudging him a little. "If you're such deadly enemies this is an opportunity. You know, getting to know each other might not be such a bad thing."

Mello seemed to consider it for a moment. "I guess there's no point being pessimistic about the situation. L's not going to change his mind. I guess we're just going to have to get used to it."

"Exactly. Now why don't we relax until Roger has to sort out the room?"

"All you do is relax." Mello shot back.

"Is that such a bad thing? If you relaxed you wouldn't get put into these situations."

"Are you saying this is my fault?"

Matt sighed. "Well, you did break my arm."

"It was your fault, if you'd have just let me throw him off the balcony nothing would have happened to you!"

"Let you throw him off the balcony? Are you really some kind of psychopath after all?"

"It wouldn't surprise me."

"You- Ah!" Mello nearly stumbled over when he was yanked to his feet, and turned to the boy that had just interrupted him. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To get a puzzle. I'm afraid you'll have to accompany me, just as I've accompanied you. I'd much rather have something to do than listen to you two bicker about whether or not it would be productive to throw me off a balcony."

"And you think that's hard to live with?" Matt said under his breath.

"I'm not coming with you to get one of your stupid puzzles."

Near only looked over at him with raised eyebrows and walked straight out of the room, pulling the older boy along with him. When he was determined he could be quite strong.

"I really hate you." Mello scowled and followed after him out the room, at least going at as slow a pace as he could manage.

"As if I didn't know that already."

* * *

A/N: That took forever to write and it's not very good, I'm sorry! Hopefully once things are set up it'll move along quicker and I'll write it a lot faster. Bear with me, I have high hopes that I might actually finish this ^_^


	3. Unreadable

Mello had been lying back on his bed for the past few hours, his attention just on the metal ring that now inhabited his wrist. How the hell L had thought to get handcuffs that would match their wrists, he had no idea. He must have planned this. What a sneaky bastard. Then again, L never came unprepared. He just had to question how he expected this to work. From his point of view, this would only make his and Near's relationship even worse. Anyone would get fed up with someone after more than a week of their company. It was how things worked. Perhaps L was just socially incompetent enough to not know that. His studying would be disrupted, too. Not even Matt was allowed in whilst he studied.

He then looked over to the pale boy sitting with his back against the bed that was to be in the same room for as long as this would take, a small frown on his face. How he managed to look so serene in such a situation was completely beyond his understanding. It obviously irritated him. Even with a long chain attached to his wrist, he managed to continue to build a dice tower steadily, and without knocking it over once. It was the blind irritation that caused him to jerk his hand and pull it taught, so that Near's hand went straight through the tower and it collapsed around him. He could have sworn he saw a slightly surprised expression on his face when they rained down on him. Mello just chuckled, and put his hands behind his head, finding the ceiling less irritating – although, admittedly not as interesting – to look at.

"Why did you do that?" Near's voice broke his train of thought, and he shifted his eyes over to the pale boy.

"What do you mean, why? I hate you. What other reason do I need?" What cause would Near have for a stupid question like that? He'd never questioned his actions before. Near always seemed to know everything about everyone. He didn't think he'd even asked him anything like that before.

"But why?" Couldn't he look away? Near's eyes were enough to freak anyone out after long. "It was a petty thing to do, right?"

Mello only narrowed his eyes in his direction.

"Surely you would only need to do something like that if you felt there was no other way to get under my skin. It seemed like you didn't-"

"Will you just shut up for once?" Mello snapped back. "What's behind all _this? _Why the sudden need to provoke me?"

"I'm making conversation." Near went back to trying to build up the first layer of a tower. But his roommate had already dropped to the floor and grabbed the chain with one hand, yanking it away from the ground.

"That's a lie." He sneered. "You're going to have to start telling me the truth, Near. And I'm not intending on leaving you alone until you start doing so."

"Only if you do." Near's piercing gaze flickered up to meet his again, but with an unmeasurable amount of calm and something else he couldn't place. His expression dropped, and he let go of the chain.

"Fine. You really want an answer that much?" He leaned forward. "Because I despise you so much that I'm willing to resort to such petty things to show you. I absolutely hate you. No amount of time chained to you is going to change that, and it will most probably increase it."

The frustrating thing was that he didn't even look fazed. Near just didn't care, in Mello's eyes. He didn't care at all about whether or not he hated him, and he was indifferent towards him – probably the worst thing he could feel about him.

"We'll see." He just looked back to the floor. That was it. That was all he had to say.

"What?" Mello just stared at him incredulously. It was as if he doubted him. Or, as if he doubted that Mello hated him as much as he said he did. "What do you mean, 'we'll see'?"

"Exactly what the phrase implies." Near looked up again, but this time his eyes were different. Less emotionless and like black pits, and more… jeering. As if he was silently laughing at him. All Near seemed to do was try to ransack his thoughts.

He hated him.

It wasn't fair that Near seemed to know everything about him and yet Mello couldn't work anything out properly. That had to change. No matter what, Near always had the last word, and if he hit him, the higher ground. Mello had to try to change it, at least. If this took a week or more, he would try to find out something he didn't know about Near. Was he really scared of anything? Of course. He had to be. No human is fearless, and no one is perfect. Not even a well-behaved, quiet little genius such as him. With that information, Mello could have a shot at finally surpassing him.

"Very well." A strange calm had settled over him, instead of the normal blind anger. It didn't seem to unsettle his rival, but it must have done, even only slightly. "Sweet dreams, Near." He got up again, this time not even knocking down what he'd managed to build. This was new. He just climbed into the bed, shooting the boy a knowing smile, and rolled over.

He didn't see Near stare over at the bed, with a delicate frown very different to the expression he was harbouring before. Mello was going to go beyond the usual ways of annoying him. Despite L's good intentions, this could only lead to disaster, and perhaps some serious harm could end up being inflicted.

* * *

_Well, I kind of failed with the whole 'updating regularly' thing. To get me back into the swing of this story, here's a short chapter. I kind of want to change the tone to something a little more intense. I just find that easier to write. I really hope I finish this but I don't know where I'm going._


End file.
